Mat 20, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



481 



disposition and close application to hig studies 

 have prevented him from taking a prominent part 

 ia the activities of natural history organizations, 

 and thereby he has gained time for research which 

 has placed to his credit a greater number of 

 works than has been produced by any other or- 

 nithologist. With Baird and Brewer he collabo- 

 rated in the production of a five-volumer quarto on 

 the ' ' Birds of North America. " This was fol- 

 lowed hj his standard "Manual of North Ameri- 

 can Birds," "Nomenclature of Colors for Natur- 

 alists, " " Birds of Illinois, " and "Color Stan- 

 dards and Color Nomenclature," a work generally 

 accepted by naturalists throughout the world. 

 Meanwhile he had published also some five hun- 

 dred papers of varying length, and it was not untU 

 1901 that the way was prepared for his magnum 

 opus, "The Birds of Middle and North America," 

 the eighth volume of which has won for him the 

 award of the Daniel G-iraud Elliot Medal by the 

 National Academy of Sciences. 



According to the deed of gift, the award of 

 the Elliot Medal is made " to the author of 

 such paper, essay or other work upon some 

 branch .of zoology or palaeontology published 

 during the year as in the opinion of the per- 

 sons, or a majority of the persons, hereinafter 

 api>ointed to be the judges in that regard, shall 

 be the most meritorious and worthy of honor. 

 ... As science is not national the medal and 

 diploma and surplus income may be conferred 

 upon naturalis)ts of any country, and as men 

 eminent in their respective lines of scientific 

 research will act as judges, ... no person 

 acting as such judge shall be deemed on that 

 account ineligible to receive this annual gift, 

 and the medal, diploma and surplus income 

 may in any year be awarded to any one of 

 the judges, if, in the opinion of his associates, 

 he shall, by reason of the excellence of any 

 treatise published by him during the year, be 

 entitled to receive them." Nominations on the 

 work of the year 1920 in zoology and palaeon- 

 tology should be addressed to the Home Sec- 

 retary of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, 

 by whom they will be forwarded to the com- 

 mittee on award. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn 



Amekican Museum of Natural Histoet, 

 New York City, May 4, 1921 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 



The United Engineering Societies have is- 

 sued a statement in regard to the situation in 

 the United States Patent Office, calling atten- 

 tion to the fact that wholesale resignations are 

 crippHng the service to the point of disorgani- 

 zation and are creating conditions that threaten 

 American industrial enterprise and invention. 

 The council, through its Patents Committee, 

 of which Edwin J. Prindle, of New York City, 

 is chairman, reports that the situation has 

 become almost intolerable and quotes the new 

 commissioner of patents, Thomas E. Itobert- 

 son, as saying that remedial legislation at the 

 present session of Congress is necessary if re- 

 sults approaching disruption are to be pre- 

 vented. 



The council appeals for support of pending 

 patent legislation, which provides sufficient in- 

 creases in salaries to check the exodus of em- 

 ployees from the Patent Office to private em- 

 ployment. In a little over one year, 110 mem- 

 bers of the force of examiners, numbering 437, 

 have resigned. During the first three weeks of 

 the Harding administration six highly trained 

 experts left the service to accept salaries two 

 or three times as great elsewhere. In the 

 past year 142 of the 560 clerical workers have 

 resigned. There are thirty clerks in the Pat- 

 ent office who receive only $60 a month who 

 would get $1,100 a year under the new salary 

 bill. 



Commissioner Robertson is quoted as stat- 

 ing that the Patent Office runs one of the larg- 

 est ten-cent stores in the world. The enter- 

 prise has as its stock about 75,000,000 copies of 

 aibout 1,500,000 patents, and new patents at the 

 rate of from 600 to 1,000 a week add 50,000 

 more copies to be taken care of each week. Many 

 patent copies are sold for a dime apiece during 

 the year. There is a stenographic department 

 handling legal work that turned out 13,000,000 

 words in the past year and brought in $62,000 

 revenue. 



It is the opinion of the engineering, research 

 and manufacturing associations of the United 

 States that the scientific and industrial inter- 

 ests of the country are being jeopardized by 



